STEAM education is a focal point of U.S. classrooms, fueled by rising demand for skilled workers with the computer programming and coding skills required to fill 21st-century careers. SAM Labs, an edtech startup that empowers teachers with the most engaging STEAM classroom solutions, is leading the movement to equip schools with modern instructional resources and technology. SAM Labs today launched SAM Blockly, a solution that enables students to progress from visual flow-based programming to block-based programming.

Created in partnership with Workbench, SAM Blockly is a complete classroom solution that allows users to access a combination of content, the SAM Blockly app and SAM blocks. The programming app contains a Blockly programming environment to interact with SAM blocks, which are wireless Bluetooth hardware blocks that are either inputs or outputs such as motors and light sensors.

SAM Blockly provides an important pathway for students. The solution enables progression from SAM Labs’ visual flow-based coding environment SAM Space, to the Blockly environment as a logical next step. Students are then prepared to later advance to script-based coding languages as they develop their skills.

For educators, SAM Blockly expands on their familiarity with Scratch and Blockly by adding blocks as a physical element for a stronger learning experience. The solution also integrates with other classroom components, such as 3D printers and LEGO, to help educators increase the value of their existing STEAM resources. With SAM Blockly, educators can share and discover projects from other teachers to make integration into the classroom quick and easy.

“We recognize the importance of educators clearly mapping their students’ progression,” said Joachim Horn, founder and CEO of SAM Labs. “SAM Blockly is the perfect bridge for students who have discovered the fun of coding and creating with SAM Space and want to progress to that next step."

“We’re always on the lookout for companies that are on the forefront of providing transformative learning solutions,” said Chris Sleat, founder and CEO of Workbench. “As pioneers in STEAM, SAM Labs embodies this idea. We’re proud to partner with them because they provide immensely engaging and powerful classroom experiences that benefit teachers and students of all levels.”

SAM Blockly is available now on Chromebooks and Mac OSX computers via the Chrome browser. To learn more, visit http://blockly.samlabs.com.

About SAM Labs

SAM Labs is an edtech company that empowers teachers with the most engaging STEAM solution including lesson plans, apps and electronics. Its goal is to inspire every student to discover the fun in coding and creating. With a focus on building products that capture every type of student’s imagination, SAM Labs is democratizing the edtech industry. By combining highly engaging software with intuitive, user friendly hardware, SAM Labs teaches coding and engineering to children of all skill sets and interests. Offering projects across a variety of subjects — from biology, to probability, to music — SAM Labs builds edtech products for the athlete, the artist and the engineer.

SAM Labs offers a coding solution for teachers, providing in-classroom support for both the early adopter and the tech-hesitant teacher by offering fully integrated and curriculum-based lesson plans and hands-on educator support. With partners like Intel Education and Microsoft Education, SAM Labs is bringing coding to every classroom around the world.